In the related art, conveyor systems for conveying articles such as small goods include a conveyor system for conveying articles by means of a conveyor installed on a floor, e.g., a roller conveyor or a belt conveyor and a conveyor system for conveying articles with suspending devices such as hanger sorters.
In a conveyor system including a suspending device, an article is stored in a suspended storage that is suspended from the rail of a suspending device. The suspended storage with the stored article is conveyed while being suspended from the rail.
The specification of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2016/0159558 describes a conveyor system including suspending devices according to the related art. The conveyor system conveys articles stored in suspended storages, each including a pocket main unit (storage body) that stores an article, a frame that suspends the pocket main unit, and a hook-shaped suspended element that is suspended from the suspending device and fixes the frame. In the conveyor system including the suspended storage described in the specification of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2016/0159558, the pocket main unit of the suspended storage is made up of a rear wall part, a front wall part, and a base part connecting the rear wall part and the front wall part. The front wall part has an opening for discharging an article stored in the pocket main unit. The inclination of the frame is changed relative to the suspended element, so that the relative positions of the rear wall part and the front wall part are vertically changed and the article in the pocket main unit is discharged from the opening.
In the suspended storage described in the specification of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2016/0159558, however, the parts (the rear wall part, the front wall part, and the base part) constituting the pocket main unit (storage body) are different members (parts), and the base part pivots to discharge the article, which is stored in the pocket main unit (storage body), from the opening. Thus, the configuration of the pocket main unit (storage body) may be disadvantageously complicated. For this reason, in a conveyor system according to the related art, when an article is to be conveyed while being stored in a suspended storage, a storage body having a complicated configuration such as the one described in the specification of U.S. Patent Application Publication 2016/0159558 must be used.
An object of the present invention is to provide a conveyor system where a suspended storage is usable with a storage body storing an article with a simple configuration.